Why some in Memphis' Sikh community see interfaith dialogue as a matter of 'oneness'

Katherine Burgess
The Commercial Appeal

Vaneet Singh helped the small group of Orthodox Jews as they entered the doors of Mid South Sikh Sabha, the Sikh gurdwara in Cordova, in January. They took off their shoes, covered their heads in a bandanna or a scarf and then entered the place of worship and gathering.

Singh explained why Sikhs cover their heads, and why they wash their hands and take off their shoes before entering the place of worship.

First, they entered the main hall. There, members of the Sikh community bowed to the Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Book. Then, Singh invited the group into the other hall, the community kitchen, where they began to discuss Sikhism, the world’s fifth-largest faith.

Singh and other Sikhs in the Memphis area are reaching out to other faith communities to learn about them and to share information about themselves. 

Doing so, they say, makes them better Sikhs along the way.

It's also a way to raise awareness of Sikhism, an oft-misunderstood group with only around 500,000 Sikhs in the United States, although there are more than 25 million Sikhs around the world, according to the Sikh Coalition. 

The religion teaches equality of all people, and that all faiths worship one God.

Sikhs are also 100s of times more likely to be the victims of hate crimes because of their often-distinctive appearances when the men wear a beard and turban, according to the Sikh Coalition.

Returning to the main hall, the members of the Orthodox Jewish community sat among the Sikhs, listening to the Sikh priest sing the shabads, hymns.

At the end of the service the guests and congregation were presented with Karah Prasad, a warm, sweet dough made of wheat flour, sugar and clarified butter as a blessing.

Worship at the Mid South Sikh Sabha includes the singing of scripture from the Guru Granth Sahib, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, in Cordova, Tenn.

“Every human being is equal,” said Dilbag Singh Dhaliwal, a member of the board of trustees at Mid South Sikh Sabha. “We welcome everyone, so we want people to know about us and we want to learn about them, about their culture. We believe in oneness.”

Conversations happen in a gurdwara and a church

A few days before the visit by the Orthodox Jews to the gurdwara, Singh was joined by a Sikh friend, Gurmukh Singh (no relation) on a visit to Collierville Bible Church.

The two men were meeting Noel Fenderson, a member of the church, to discuss Christianity and Sikhism — the tenets of the faiths, how they are similar and how they differ. All three men had questions.

Walking into the church, Gurmukh Singh immediately asked about the baptistry in the entryway. A cross and the words “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give shall never thirst” hung over the water.

Fenderson told the two Sikhs the biblical story of the woman at the well.

“If somebody gives their life to Christ, says Jesus is my Lord and Savior, they are baptized as a symbol where they’re saying hey, I’m publicly declaring this for people to see,” Fenderson said.

“The interesting thing is in Sikhism, we do baptism too,” Gurmukh Singh said.

“The concept is very similar,” Vaneet Singh said.

“(You say), you are devoted to God,” Gurmukh Singh added.

Vaneet Singh and Fenderson met in the summer of 2019 at their children’s school. They met up in the fall and began discussing their faiths, and Singh visited a service at Collierville Bible Church. Later, Fenderson visited the gurdwara. 

“The world is shrinking,” Vaneet Singh said. “I think we need to look at the ways to complement each other. These interactions give me the opportunity to where now I know what Noel believes and what his thoughts are. He has so much compassion and love. If I need his help, now I will feel comfortable reaching out to him.”

Fenderson and Vaneet Singh are also considering the possibility of getting together people from the gurdwara and the church to do volunteer work together.

For Gurmukh Singh, the gathering at the church was his first with Fenderson. There, he said he focused on trying to find similarities between Sikhism and Christianity.

“It is better to find similarities,” Gurmukh Singh said. “Similarities are going to make you one. Oneness is going to make you closer to God.”

A truck driver, Gurmukh Singh said he is often in places that are unfamiliar with Sikhs. Often, he is mistaken for a Muslim, he said. He doesn’t mind that, he said, but does mind when he — and Muslims — aren’t treated like humans.

“We want to do something that will give a good message to people that all are humans and we have to work together to do something better for humanity,” Gurmukh Singh said.

Sikhs offer a ‘complete warm embrace’

Jason Caplan has been visiting Sikh gurdwaras since 2004, when he came across one in New York City. Since he moved to Memphis, he’s become familiar with Mid South Sikh Sabha. Eventually, members of his Orthodox Jewish community also wanted to visit, so he coordinated with Vaneet Singh for the Sunday visit.

The first time he entered a Sikh gurdwara in New York was the first time he felt a “complete warm embrace by someone devoted to their own path,” Caplan said. There was no attempt to convert him. He was simply welcomed and invited to sit and meditate as a brother.

“I would say if you’re ever interested to go to another faith and be warmly embraced and have an easy, beautiful meditation experience through music and feel the warmth, you’ll just be so impressed and astonished by this wonderful religious tradition,” Caplan said. “Just give yourself the chance to be surprised.”

Jason Caplan recieves the Karah Prasad, a sweet delicacy offered at the end of worship, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, in Cordova, Tenn.

In Memphis, he connects with the musicians at the gurdwara since he too is a musician, Caplan said.

The small visit with members of his Jewish synagogue to the gurdwara in January was a beautiful interfaith experience, Caplan said.

“They were thrilled to come to a place as Jewish people,” Caplan said. “There was so much commonality as Jewish people with the Sikh religion.”

Vaneet Singh said he never minds when people have questions about his faith. He’s often asked about his turban, his beard or where he comes from. He’s eager to share with others, and to learn from them.

“That’s the common connection I want to look for, I want to explore,” Vaneet Singh said. “I want to look through that lens of oneness. That’s what we Sikhs believe in.”

From left to right, Michal Wachtel, Benjamin Wachtel, Tej Bikram Singh, Sukhden Singh Dhillon, Dilbag Singh, Jason Caplan, and Vaneet Singh, inside the Mid South Sikh Sabha, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, in Cordova, Tenn.

And by building relationships with others, Vaneet Singh said he is able to understand what other faiths teach “about this human journey.” Sometimes someone asks a question he doesn’t have an answer for, so he goes back to learn what Sikhism teaches. Often, he learns something for the first time about Sikhism, he said.

In Sikhism, there are three principles that a Sikh must carry out: Meditation on the name of God, earning an honest living and providing for those in need.

“In Sikhism there’s a supreme power, one God, the creator of everything,” Vaneet Singh said. “As a Sikh, all I’m trying to do is tread that path of righteousness to reach up to that point.”

It’s because of this belief, that everyone is created by the same God, that Vaneet Singh and others in the Memphis Sikh community want to reach out to others to develop that unity along the journey.

“We don’t want to change people,” said Dhaliwal. “We just want to tell about ourselves, who we are.”

Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.